Brewer-Clifton

Incredibly delicious aromas of blackberry syrup, strawberries, cherry pie and cinnamon sticks make for a very juicy introduction to this single-vineyard bottling by Greg Brewer and Steve Clifton. The veil of ripeness carries to the palate, but it proves more serious and restrained, with graphite minerality, bergamot and sage elements. It’s complex and yet easily…

Delicious aromas cover the entire range of the strawberry experience, from the scents of a blossoming strawberry field to frozen berries macerated into a syrup. It’s refreshing and yet grippy on the palate at the same time, with candied raspberry and crushed vanilla bean swirling with bergamot rind, anise, black pepper and pine sap. Imagine mint-wrapped berries on…

Brilliant aromatics characterize this powerful wine. It has lots of charry, fine oak and huge fruit, like apricots, peaches, pineapples and mangoes. In the mouth, a firm minerality kicks in, based on high, clean acidity. This is a beautifully complex, dazzling Chard, intense and pure, but balanced and elegant.

The complex aromaa of this dramatic young wine is of mushrooms and wet tree bark, wintergreen, cloves, nutmeg and anise, and fruitier notes of cherries, cola and pomegranates. The mouth is very complex, too, with a finish of intensely pure cherries. But the wine is young and tannic. It will be best after 2008, and should drink well for at least another five years.

A bit lighter in color than the producer’s other 2012 bottling, this shows aromas of fresh-pressed raspberry juice, cola, white sage, graphite and a hint of wet asphalt. It’s light and airy on the palate, with more raspberry and pomegranate fruit as well as sage, thyme and anise. It provides great balance between ripe juice and herbal seasonings.

This esteemed winery’s younger Chardonnays are all about tension and the future. This begins with slightly sour aromas of yogurt and goat cheese along with shave fennel, radish, daikon and lemongrass. The palate is power by citrusy pith, brine and nectarine peels, with just the tiniest touch of green apple ripeness. Drink 2018–2024.